I am back at last!

[Robin4]

I have had this really strange issue, and I think a few others here have had it too!

For the past 11 days I have not been able to log onto the community centre.

I was kept up to date.....each morning I was able to see all the latest posts but.....I could not respond! Each time I tried to 'sign in'  I would be directed to a general search page!.....Boy I have to tell you I have been invited to search listings in just about every  corner of the earth!

I noticed in one post that I was not the only one this was happening to, but everyone else seemed to have their log-on issue rectified fairly quickly.....but each time I have tried to log-in over that past 11 days, I have been re-directed to a search page

It seemed to stem from yet another useless system upgrade!

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I have to say this platform is simply outrageous for un-required upgrades. The best way I can describe it is ......You have a favourite restaurant, the food is great, you get looked after well, but every time you go there, the toilets have been moved to another location with no indication of where that location might be!!!!!

I haven't wet my pants yet, but the frustration I have had over the past 11 days has been palpable.....just the fact that I could not answer anything!

I firstly asked a couple of CC regulars who I have personal emails with to get onto @Lizzie , @Quincy , or @Stephanie to see if they could fix my issue but that met with failure, so I got onto CX and asked if they could resolve this issue.

Look, to put it in perspective, it's not life threatening, I have a few sites that I contribute too, and it was not going to be the end of the world as I know it if CC access was cut off.....but I wanted to know why!

Jona from CX said she would take care of it, and then promptly sent me a message saying that she was going to have a few days off.....great!

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Tonight I hope I have bypassed this last system upgrade and managed to get myself back on the Community Centre again. Why should I have to do this, I haven't done anything wrong!

Seriously, life was not meant to be this difficult, why do our Tech development team go out of their way to make our lives this difficult? 

Cheers..........Rob

[Pat271]

Are you logged on through a browser?  If so, have you tried clearing the browser cache?

[Ute42]

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Hi @Robin4 

We have a saying here in Germany, I hope it doesn't lose sense when I translate it into english:

• don't fix it if it ain't broke

I think the software guys at airbnb don't know that saying, maybe just bc it's from a country so far away.

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  Exactly the same expression in English, word for word. So yes, the software guys are well aware of that, they just seem to think that pointlessly changing the shape of the log-in box, even if it results in a glitch whereby tons of hosts are not able to log-in, is somehow a valuable use of their time. Or maybe it's the top level of their skills.

[Robin4]

@Pat271  @Sarah977  @Ute42 

Pat, this sounds a bit long winded but stay with it, you may some ideas on this.

That was the first thing I thought of, deleting browser history, Cookies and Cache, and it is a considerable time since I have done that....but alas, it made no difference. Each time I tried to sign-in to the CC I was redirected to a new search page. I went through that procedure again with CX, she told me the fault was on my end, so I repeated the procedure with her and she then gave me some new CC links, which made no difference, I could still not sign-in!

https://community.withairbnb.com/?_ga=2.184726445.587553876.1575779768-779590131.1575779768

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Center/ct-p/community-center?_ga=2.184726445.587553876...

Now this issue was not affecting other parts of the Airbnb site, just the CC. I had thoughts that maybe my access to the CC had been suspended for some reason!

But by doing a bit of investigation I am now of the opinion that the Tech team and the web designers have made (or are in the process of making) an alteration to the Sign-in procedure! My guess is, for some reason, they have done this to try and cut down on the number of inactive windows by users who do not log-out after a session. I don't know why that would affect them but, the reason I am lead to believe this. Now, if I wish to Sign-in, I first have to bring up a CC page, (Hosting)  from my emails and even though it will tell me to Sign-in, I first have to access the drop down box and click 'Log-out' !

Once I have done that, I can then click Sign-in and I will be offered a new page with sign in and password details, and as soon as I click that, I will be immediately logged-into the CC.

It is cumbersome and makes it a lot more difficult to go from page to page if you have pages open from a previous session. In the past all I had to do was simply 'refresh'  the page and I would be automatically signed in on that page, no matter how long ago I last accessed it. But not any more, before I sign in I have to log-out whether the pages tells me I am or not! 

Once  signed in any new pages I open in that session are fine, I can flit from one to the other just as I have always done.

But Pat it is not connected to my Cache or my browsing history. Have you got any other thoughts?

Cheers......Rob

[Pat271]

It’s acting like it’s holding onto an orphaned session somewhere.  I notice when logged into the community, it also establishes a regular airbnb session (which makes sense so that profiles can be accessed).  When logged into Airbnb, go to Account/Login & Security and disconnect from all Social Accounts and log out of all devices under Device History.  Also, after you clear your cache, take down the browser window entirely.  Now go to your email and find a community link and try again.  You may be prompted to log into Airbnb again, which is fine once.  From then on, I think that session is retained for subsequent access from the community.

If that doesn’t work, what is your setup - are you on a regular computer, or are you on a mobile device where there is both a browser and an Airbnb app?  If the latter, you can try deleting the Airbnb app and accessing the email link again. That way at least the app is out of the picture.

Without actually having access to the code, sometimes the only available diagnostic options are trial & error and process of elimination, I’m afraid. :). Hope you get this cleared up soon.

[Susan17]

@Robin4 

Same as you - just been able to get back in for the first time. In the meantime, my entire account has been screwed up - for the thousandth time. Prices on my calendar randomly re-set with prices ranging from 100euro to 700euro - resulting in an instant booking at almost 1000euro less than it should have been. Guests are incorrectly being shown that I have a pool, 2 double beds in each room - and no hot water! Presumably, this latest round of glitches is because they've added shower gel, rubbish bin, baking sheet, barbecue utensils and a bread maker to the amenities tick list, and they've managed to screw everything else up in the process. Absolute muppets.

Oh and whatever I change on the app (prices, blocked dates, ticked amenities etc), doesn't reflect on the laptop,and whatever I change on the laptop, doesn't reflect on the app.

Sterling work, as always, Airbnb. 

[Robin4]

@Susan17 

Hi there oh Irish mate,

You worried me a bit there Susan so I ran back over my listing and all appears to be OK there. Pricing, availability is unchanged, the only slightly odd thing is, I haven't had a booking or an enquiry for ten days and my views are a down by about 70%. It's not worrying me, but it is just a bit strange, we consistently average 11-13 reservations a months, and to have nothing come across this screen in the height of summer for 10 days, is, well,  unusual!

I don't know how much faith you can put in external ranking programs, but Porter App has me at number 1 in my area.

 

Susan, not wishing to state the obvious, is it possible your account has been compromised in some way? Could it be you are being 'pranked'? 

I trust your judgement explicitly because you do know what you are doing, and you are as competent a host as I have encountered. But some times we don't see the forest for the trees!

You have been having unexpected and un-warranted site/platform issues for around 18 months that I am aware of....have you tried going back to scratch and re-installing your account....I know this must be driving you mad! 

I am with you though, although CX are telling me this CC log-on issue is on my end I am quite certain there is a system upgrade involved here. I have deleted all evidence of the CC on my computer, I have done precisely what @Pat271  advised! I did that routinely because that is what I used to advise users who had similar issues to do when I was tied up with Di******ly! ....and what Pat advised only strengthened what I had already done. 

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Like you I just wish this lot would stop trying to 'improve' things. They obviously do not have a 'cause and effect' department which researches the implications of some of these looney programming upgrades.

I have not heard one user tell me they think the streamlining of the 'message' page with the deletion of the booking calendar and the revision of the guest message page where the only information now provided are 'Local things to do during your stay' is positive to their hosting. 

Susan, mercifully my profile and listing page have been left alone, that works ok.....for the time!

But the one thing you can be absolutely sure of, what ever is going on, we won't get an explanation!

Cheers......Rob  

[Stephanie]

@Susan17  - completely separate to the CC issue. I'm going to share this with the team now, I hope to get some news for you ASAP.

Stephanie

[Susan17]

@Stephanie  @Robin4 

Thanks, but please don't waste your time. My account has been riddled with glitches for years. None of these are new to me - I've been repeatedly reporting the endless bugs plaguing my account for the longest time - there must 100 or more tickets relating to technical issues in my history now - but instead of being fixed, they've just got worse and worse. At one point, Brian Chesky himself referred my entire account to the top techs at SF HQ for investigation. Took them 6 weeks to get back to me, instead of the "few days" I was promised, and although I did subsequently enjoy a brief glitch-free period, it was only a short while until it was straight back to business as usual. And the last time the team tried to fix things, I ended up with a nightmare double booking that took days to sort, so best if they don't start meddling and make things even worse than they already are. 

Besides, I'll be closing down my account in a couple of weeks anyway. And it won't be a moment too soon. Thank you so much for trying to help though, Steph - I do appreciate it 🙂

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Robin4 @Susan17 @Ute42 @Sarah977 @Pat271 ,

Thank for you for sticking with us throughout this irritating Community Center issue. Because of the specifics shared here and by other such as @Cathie19 , @Jennifer1421 and @Helen427 we have began to roll out several fixes. We have already seen a massive increase in stability and lots of users reporting they are able to login successfully without the palaver. 

We think it's resolved but we are still rolling out different elements of the overall fix so if you do see anything dodgy with the CC, please do let me know the details at your earliest convenience. 

It's a double edged sword for us Community managers - it's awful you not being able to get in but it is also lovely to see how much you are try and share information to help us get back to business as usual. Honestly, we would prefer to avoid this in the entirety but does show the persistence of such a kick arse community.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Robin4]

@Stephanie 

Oh hell, now I have to eat my words again.....we did get an explanation!

Thanks Steph, I think most of us who have encountered this issue are now using a work-around to keep ourselves in a position where we can contribute here on the CC but, for the first week, I just assumed that it was another of these little glitches and it would be fixed in no time! But as time went on and I could see everyone else still active on the CC I thought I should try to investigate what was going on.

There has been an alteration to the Sign-in/Log-out protocol, and I guess it is being done for a reason but, as users all we want is, to be kept informed. If we know what is going on we will be patient and we will handle it. It's just hard when we strike a brick wall and don't know what to do!

But thanks Steph for your words of encouragement....as I said, I didn't expect we would get it! 

Cheers.......Rob

[Cathie19]

Thanks @Stephanie for going in to bat for us all! Still unable to use the App across any Apple devices, so haven’t even tried the laptop or PC. Just constantly logging out, switching off all notifications, and trying to come through the google browser, rather than being directed by the Airbnb App to Safari. Chrome is also looping to Safari. I’m just a bit sick of looping in the never ending circle, like @Robin4 , but to my profile page. 

It’s like a “Groundhog Day”..... download the App... and repeat the above each time.. 

[Susan151]

@Robin4 @Stephanie  I am going to push back just a little bit and support the development team, [in spite of their woefully inadequate unit testing.] Of all the areas of modern software that MUST be updated regularly, logging on is at the top of the list. There are really smart people/criminals who find backdoors, loopholes and hacking entries. It is their job. AirBNB's development teams' job is to constantly discover the new vulnerabilities and close them up; increasing the security systems to reduce the number of hacked accounts.

The fact of the matter is, software is always broken on some level. AirBNB is a software company, and they will never stop tweaking it to produce the desired [by AirBNB standards] results.

What is horrifying to me, as a former database developer, is that there appears to be a total lack of unit testing. The software was developed with bandaids, bubble gum, and a prayer for years with speed of upgrades taking precedence over accuracy. I suspect that rebuilding the code base from scratch is never going to happen which means that testing will never be implemented.

[Pat271]

@Susan151  I can vouch that you are absolutely correct, and the problems are not particular to Airbnb, but to software development methods currently in force at many companies (e.g. Agile development), which encourage lightening-speed code check-ins and early-and-often code delivery to the end user.  There are upsides to this approach, as software teams tend to get much more user feedback, more often, compared to the traditional “waterfall” approach.  However, what often happens is that the customer ends up being the Beta tester, and even worse, the unit tester.  To prevent this, companies need to build very robust test-driven development suites so that side-effects of code changes can be caught earlier, and tests need to be added in a very disciplined manner whenever a new feature or change is introduced into the codebase. Unfortunately, it often takes months (or years) to develop good automated tests, and it has to be done in parallel with these hundreds-per-day code check-ins. Not excusing Airbnb at all - they (and other companies) really need to get better at this.